WTC: Anatomy of the Collapse - TLC - 03/02/02 4pm est

[charlie,nj]

I looked on the www.tlc.com site.

The WTC:Anatomy of the Collaspe will be re broadcast on March 2 at 4:00 pm est. It was originally broadcast on 02/26 at 10:00pm est.

It is a very sad but interesting show. The computer generations are un believable.

 

[BrerMom]

Thanks for the reminder. I wanted to watch that.

 

[Dan Murphy]

It is an excellent show. Sad, but very interesting and informative.

 

[Lucky4me]

Did any of you watch it? I just couldn't. I thought I was ready but I was wrong...
Maybe next time it's on.....

 

[Dan Murphy]

I did, Sue. It was mostly a technical analysis of the structural makeup that made the collapses inevitable, given the tremendous hits they took, where they were hit and the huge fuel loads, along with the basic structural makeup of the Towers. Very interesting, though sad it was, yes.

 

[Danney]

I saw it last week, pretty scary, and sad too.

 

[charlie,nj]

I could not believe the computer generations.

I am glad I watched it; it cleared up a lot for me.

It was sad to see but I just need to know how it happened.

I could never figure out how there seemed to be so little debris from two 110-story buildings. The part about how the floors were constructed cleared it up for me. The floors were held up by small metal trusses not large steel beams. The kind of trusses you see in the ceilings of those big warehouse stores. (toys r us) The trusses were attached to the shell of the building by pins. Four inches of concrete was poured on top of the trusses to form the floor.

The generations showed how the pins started to let go one by one from the weight of the floors falling above them.

Also interesting was the guy who designed it saying that the WTC was designed so it could be built fast and cheap. It was designed to take the impact of a 707, but he said that no consideration was ever given to the jet fuel. The fire from the jet fuel bent the steel. He did say that even if they did take it into consideration when it was designed there was really nothing that could have been done.


PS – if you watched the show the scarp yard that they showed is in my hometown Jersey City. I pass by it almost every day. It is chilling to see the large piles of steel sitting there.

 

[RitaZ.]

I saw it a few weeks ago. It was very sad, but very informative. It explained a lot of things for me. I was shocked to see the bent pieces of metal in the scrap yard.

 

[LIDisneyFan]

I happened to be flipping through and saw parts of it - obviously, it was very disturbing to me, but I found the need to watch for a few minutes.

What overwhelmed (and surprised ) me wasn't the shots of the crashes, collapse, and burning. Those are seared in my mind forever. But when they showed some of the shots of the inside of the buildings before the incidents, and some of the exterior shots, I think I grieved for the absence of a place which had become such a part of every day of my life. I was terribly saddened by the loss of the buildings for the first time.

I wonder where all of the people I dealt with every day are (the folks at Au Bon Pain, the Japanese take out, Duane Reade, the Gap, etc.). I pray they have been able to move on, too.

 

[Geoff_M]

Just to amplify what Charlie said...

The fire didn't fatally bend the I-beams of the superstructure. They were softened but held. The problem was the trusses under each floor. They are much more suseptible to fire since they are thiner and lighter than I-beams. The fire caused them to stretch to the point of breaking free from their anchor points. This caused the floors (but not the outer structure of the building) to start to pancake. This then created a cavity inside the four outer walls. Unfortunately, the trusses were used to provide support to keep the four outer walls from bowing in or out. With that support gone, the outer walls finally buckled. The energy created by that small initial drop was then enough to trigger the chain reaction that caused the whole thing to come down. They said at the peak, the downward fall was 120 MPH.

 

[Deb in IA]

Does anyone know if you can order a copy of the video?

We don't have cable. My dad is a civil engineer, and specializes in structural design (although he mostly works in bridges and highways). I'm sure he would be very interested in this program.

 

[gina2000]

The NY Times ran a whole series describing the WTC structure including the theory as to why it collapsed inward as opposed to outward. The theory that the trusses were the weak point in the structure seems to be the prevailing opinion. Unfortunately, once one floor began to collapse ontop of another, it created a momentum that could not be stopped.

As much as I don't want to watch it, I think it's time.

 

[charlie,nj]

Geoff_M thanks for explaining it a little better. The part of the show where the professor used the two simple wooden models to demonstrate the instability was amazing.


Deb in IA – I looked on www.tlc.com and didn’t see any videos for sale. Can’t you get someone to tape it on March 2?

 

[Dan Murphy]

http://shopping.discovery.com/store...401&parent_category_rn=1115&partnumber=656603

 

[charlie,nj]

Dan always the showoff.

(I must be getting old)

 

[Deb in IA]

Thanks, Dan.

 

[Towncrier]

UPDATE: I just found out that this program will be available on DVD on August 20th.

The 9/11 special that aired on CBS some time ago (the one by the French filmmakers) will be available on DVD on September 10th.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Thanks for the heads up, TC.


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...8688217/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/104-9024642-8781527


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...88350/sr=11-1/ref=sr_11_1/104-9024642-8781527

 

[adamak]

Just one thing on my mind. Some news reports have a sort of blaming tone that the builders should have thought about jet fuels. That it should have withstand the fire.

Any normal person would not have designed a tower that can withsand plane disaster. It's only normaly nature. Instead of blaming the designers, we should all be grateful that (1) it took quite some time before they collapse. More lives are saved, and (2) it literally collapse over itself. Think about how close the other buildings are. The building I used to work is only a street away (3 lanes), and it's not even structurally weakened.

That, is the miracle. To me, the designer of the towers are heros too.

 

[Towncrier]

I don't think that the "Anatomy" program was made to blame anyone. I agree that it's a tribute to the structural engineers of the WTC that both towers stood as long as they did. This is made clear by the producers of this program. Of course things could have been engineered and constructed differently and perhaps one or both of the towers would have remained standing, but no one could have predicted the circumstances of 9/11. I can only hope and pray that the engineering lessons learned from the collapse will only serve to make for stronger and safer buildings in the future. I agree that the architects and engineers of the WTC are indeed heros.